Christian Fiction Devourers discussion

We'd love to hear what challenges you enjoyed, which ones fell flat and any suggestions you have for 2022. This will help us with planning for the upcoming year. Thanks in advance!

Enjoyed:

Annual:
Finish the series
Stack Attack
Golden Oldies
Award Challenge
Reread challenge - but if not repeat, can incorporate in Stack attack
New Author
New releases
50 states

Monthly:
Author
Pick a book out of the hat
Hidden Gems
The monthly challenge list Cheryl always had

Suggestions:

Challenge suggestions:

Moderator/CFS recommendations - 52 books (one per week),
- moderators select books they would suggest CFD to read
- Challenge - 1 per month or read all
- If you are in for 52 and have read one a previous year - Freebie Swap


Book Roulette
- each month - sort your TBR (or specific bookshelf for this challenge) by random and you must read number one one on page 1 (o2 two for month 2, 3 for month 3…)
- you are allowed to substitute this only:
- If part of series and you need to read the books prior to this one first
- It is a book you don't have available - then the next one on the list

Cover theme challenge
- dependent on reading speed, try to read weekly, bi weekly, monthly books with the same colour - if weekly, colours may be repeated

End of letter challenge (annual)
- For example, member one reads
Never Leve Me
Next book posted should start with E

Pick a word and read 5 books with that word somewhere in the title.

I think Sarita's mentioned my favourites of that past challenges, with the exception of the cover challenge. I actually quite enjoy those.
As far as new challenge ideas go, I found a few intriguing ones over on this site: https://www.girlxoxo.com/the-2022-mas...
One that I noticed there that I don't think we've ever done is a decade challenge . . . read one book a month set in each of the decades between the 1910s and now. That one looked like it would be a lot of fun.

I loved the cover challenge.
The Book Roulette sounds interesting. I tried the Decade challenge one year for a personal challenge. It was really interesting and fun
I didn't know there was an Award Challenge, I was going to suggest that.

I didn't take part in many challenges this year. I like the ABC challenge. I really like some of Sarita's ideas, especially the end of letter Challenge idea. I also like the Decade challenge idea that Kate mentioned. I hope to take part in more this coming year.

Occupation Challenge - hero/heroine having different occupations like police officer, nurse/doctor, firefighter, lawyer, veterinarian, blacksmith, lumberjack, cook, etc.

Animal Challenge - books where an animal plays a large part in the story, horse, dog, cat, sheep, bear, wolf, chicken, etc.

Monthly Challenge - books that start in the month of January, February, March, etc.

Ethnic Challenge - books either set in a country or with characters from/descended from a county, Ireland, Germany, China, India, Mexico, Egypt, South Africa, etc.

Challenges I enjoyed that had me either looking for a specific book or working to get through my TBR:
Revisiting an Old Friend
Stack Attack
Cover it Up
Golden Oldies
Finish the Series

These are challenges I used a lot because it allowed me to keep track of all I was reading.
New Releases
Ebook
Audiobook
Cloak and Dagger

I would document "new authors to me" in that challenge as I read them. I didn't seek out new authors, but as I read them (usually for review) I would document them.

I liked that we could customize the Author of the Month.

I did the ABC challenge, but got a little tired of it as the year went on.

Great thoughts, friends. Keep 'em coming!

Suggestions for 2022:

A "Key Word" Challenge - could either be done monthly or an all year challenge. A word or group of words that are connected are given and you must find a book with that word in the title.

I do really like those cover type challenges related to items on the cover or main colors on the cover.

Maybe a twist on an author challenge by having a monthly challenge that we would need to read a book by an author with a certain initial. So, for example, maybe February would be read an author with the initial "C" and I would choose how many books I thought I could read for that month.

Ooo, so much fun! One of my favorite things about the New Year is looking forward to all the fresh challenges on goodreads!! I love some of the suggestions people have made, especially the decades challenge, the color theme, and the read five books with the same word in the title. For that one, we could have different levels: Twins (two books with the same word in the title), Triplets (three books with the same word in the title), Quadruplets, Quintuplets, etc. to make either easier or harder.

I'd also love to have another BINGO challenge - maybe of genres or settings or plot motifs or time periods.

I would definitely like to see one challenge that highlights different time periods for historical fiction, maybe the decades challenge or a time-period bingo or something like that.

Some of my favorite challenges this year have been:
Love Your Neighbor
Biblical Fiction
Cover It Up
Read Your Bible
Rereads

Plus I always do these traditional challenges:
ABCs
50 States
Around the World
Non-Fiction
Children's
Audiobooks
Classics

Thanks, moderators, for putting these together for us! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

My favorites of the year were
Love your Neighbor it helped me work on my personals reading goal of reading more diversely
finish the series
stack attack
classic
and of course 50 State challenge. Even though I never make it to all 50 states I still enjoy the challenge.

For those who have mentioned Hidden Gems: Thank you! I love hosting that one and am happy to let you know it isn't going anywhere. :) Look for January's thread for it sometime after Christmas.

Andrea wrote: "For those who have mentioned Hidden Gems: Thank you! I love hosting that one and am happy to let you know it isn't going anywhere. :) Look for January's thread for it sometime after Christmas."

Oh, Hidden Gems is a definite favorite!

Andrea wrote: "For those who have mentioned Hidden Gems: Thank you! I love hosting that one and am happy to let you know it isn't going anywhere. :) Look for January's thread for it sometime after Christmas."

Great!

US challenge - love it : author: cozy mysteries: classics; children; travel around the world - books taking place in other countries; and new author; food in the title; could we do a seasonal - spring, summer, autumn or fall, winter in the title?

My goal is not to fizzle out in the Middle of the year like I always do. I am going to try to do:
Read through the Bible
Rereads
classics
audiobooks
Library
Non fiction
Hidden Jems
Finish a series
Biblical Fiction
Wish me Luck girls and I pray I don't fizzle out!!!

My favorites for the year were:
ABC
Cover It Up
Series
Rereads
Golden Oldies (I loved the random twist this year)
World
USA
E-Books
New Authors
Bible

A lot of these just help me see where my reading takes me, but I also love the ones that send me searching for something random like the cover challenge. Sarita has some really good ideas for new challenges too. I especially like the random Goodreads list and matching the last letter of the previous book. Or a version of this as others have suggested like matching words in the titles.

Just wanted to let everyone know that all of the 2022 year long challenges are now posted. Have fun choosing those you would like to take part in!

Other than Hidden Gems, which will be posted around the first of January, all of my challenges to kick off the new year are posted too.

Remember that the monthly, quarterly, and six-month challenges will rotate out on their schedules, so there will be fresh things coming your way throughout the year.

For all the updates and for easy access, please check out the catalogue of our challenges in the Crunch Time 2022 thread. Everything over there is linked up, grouped by challenge length, and alphabetized, and the links should take you right to the individual challenges.

Have fun, folks!